1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of oil and gas exploration. More particularly, the invention relates to methods for determining at least one property of a subsurface formation penetrated by a wellbore using a formation tester.
2. Background Art
Over the past several decades, highly sophisticated techniques have been developed for identifying and producing hydrocarbons, commonly referred to as oil and gas, from subsurface formations. These techniques facilitate the discovery, assessment, and production of hydrocarbons from subsurface formations.
When a subsurface formation containing an economically producible amount of hydrocarbons is believed to have been discovered, a borehole is typically drilled from the earth surface to the desired subsurface formation and tests are performed on the formation to determine whether the formation is likely to produce hydrocarbons of commercial value. Typically, tests performed on subsurface formations involve interrogating penetrated formations to determine whether hydrocarbons are actually present and to assess the amount of producible hydrocarbons therein. These preliminary tests are conducted using formation testing tools, often referred to as formation testers. Formation testers are typically lowered into a wellbore by a wireline cable, tubing, drill string, or the like, and may be used to determine various formation characteristics which assist in determining the quality, quantity, and conditions of the hydrocarbons or other fluids located therein. Other formation testers may form part of a drilling tool, such as a drill string, for the measurement of formation parameters during the drilling process.
Formation testers typically comprise slender tools adapted to be lowered into a borehole and positioned at a depth in the borehole adjacent to the subsurface formation for which data is desired. Once positioned in the borehole, these tools are placed in fluid communication with the formation to collect data from the formation. Typically, a probe, snorkel or other device is sealably engaged against the borehole wall to establish such fluid communication.
Formation testers are typically used to measure downhole parameters, such as wellbore pressures, formation pressures and formation mobilities, among others. They may also be used to collect samples from a formation so that the types of fluid contained in the formation and other fluid properties can be determined. The formation properties determined during a formation test are important factors in determining the commercial value of a well and the manner in which hydrocarbons may be recovered from the well.
The operation of formation testers may be more readily understood with reference to the structure of a conventional wireline formation tester shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B. As shown in FIG. 1A, the wireline tester 100 is lowered from an oil rig 2 into an open wellbore 3 filled with a fluid commonly referred to in the industry as xe2x80x9cmud.xe2x80x9d The wellbore is lined with a mudcake 4 deposited onto the wall of the wellbore during drilling operations. The wellbore penetrates a formation 5.
The operation of a conventional modular wireline formation tester having multiple interconnected modules is described in more detail in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,860,581 and 4,936,139 issued to Zimmerman et al. FIG. 2 depicts a graphical representation of a pressure trace over time measured by the formation tester during a conventional wireline formation testing operation used to determine parameters, such as formation pressure.
Referring now to FIGS. 1A and 1B, in a conventional wireline formation testing operation, a formation tester 100 is lowered into a wellbore 3 by a wireline cable 6. After lowering the formation tester 100 to the desired position in the wellbore, pressure in the flowline 119 in the formation tester may be equalized to the hydrostatic pressure of the fluid in the wellbore by opening an equalization valve (not shown). A pressure sensor or gauge 120 is used to measure the hydrostatic pressure of the fluid in the wellbore. The measured pressure at this point is graphically depicted along line 103 in FIG. 2. The formation tester 100 may then be xe2x80x9csetxe2x80x9d by anchoring the tester in place with hydraulically actuated pistons, positioning the probe 112 against the sidewall of the wellbore to establish fluid communication with the formation, and closing the equalization valve to isolate the interior of the tool from the well fluids. The point at which a seal is made between the probe and the formation and fluid communication is established, referred to as the xe2x80x9ctool setxe2x80x9d point, is graphically depicted at 105 in FIG. 2. Fluid from the formation 5 is then drawn into the formation tester 100 by retracting a piston 118 in a pretest chamber 114 to create a pressure drop in the flowline 119 below the formation pressure. This volume expansion cycle, referred to as a xe2x80x9cdrawdownxe2x80x9d cycle, is graphically illustrated along line 107 in FIG. 2.
When the piston 118 stops retracting (depicted at point 111 in FIG. 2), fluid from the formation continues to enter the probe 112 until, given a sufficient time, the pressure in the flowline 119 is the same as the pressure in the formation 5, depicted at 115 in FIG. 2. This cycle, referred to as a xe2x80x9cbuild-upxe2x80x9d cycle, is depicted along line 113 in FIG. 2. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the final build-up pressure at 115, frequently referred to as the xe2x80x9csandfacexe2x80x9d pressure, is usually assumed to be a good approximation to the formation pressure.
The shape of the curve and corresponding data generated by the pressure trace may be used to determine various formation characteristics. For example, pressures measured during drawdown (107 in FIG. 2) and build-up (113 in FIG. 2) may be used to determine formation mobility, that is the ratio of the formation permeability to the formation fluid viscosity. When the formation tester probe 112 is disengaged from the wellbore wall, the pressure in flowline 119 increases rapidly as the pressure in the flowline equilibrates with the wellbore pressure, shown as line 117 in FIG. 2. After the formation measurement cycle has been completed, the formation tester 100 may be disengaged and repositioned at a different depth and the formation test cycle repeated as desired.
During this type of test operation for a wireline-conveyed tool, pressure data collected downhole is typically communicated to the surface electronically via the wireline communication system. At the surface, an operator typically monitors the pressure in flowline 119 at a console and the wireline logging system records the pressure data in real time. Data recorded during the drawdown and buildup cycles of the test may be analyzed either at the well site computer in real time or later at a data processing center to determine crucial formation parameters, such as formation fluid pressure, the mud overbalance pressure, ie the difference between the wellbore pressure and the formation pressure, and the mobility of the formation.
Wireline formation testers allow high data rate communications for real-time monitoring and control of the test and tool through the use of wireline telemetry. This type of communication system enables field engineers to evaluate the quality of test measurements as they occur, and, if necessary, to take immediate actions to abort a test procedure and/or adjust the pretest parameters before attempting another measurement. For example, by observing the data as they are collected during the pretest drawdown, an engineer may have the option to change the initial pretest parameters, such as drawdown rate and drawdown volume, to better match them to the formation characteristics before attempting another test. Examples of prior art wireline formation testers and/or formation test methods are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,934,468 issued to Brieger; U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,860,581 and 4,936,139 issued to Zimmerman et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,969,241 issued to Auzerais. These patents are assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
Formation testers may also be used during drilling operations. For example, one such downhole tool adapted for collecting data from a subsurface formation during drilling operations is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,230,557 B1 issued to Ciglenec et al., which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
Various techniques have been developed for performing specialized formation testing operations, or pretests. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,095,745 and 5,233,866 both issued to DesBrandes describe a method for determining formation parameters by analyzing the point at which the pressure deviates from a linear draw down.
Despite the advances made in developing methods for performing pretests, there remains a need to eliminate delays and errors in the pretest process, and to improve the accuracy of the parameters derived from such tests. Because formation testing operations are used throughout drilling operations, the duration of the test and the absence of real-time communication with the tools are major constraints that must be considered. The problems associated with real-time communication for these operations are largely due to the current limitations of the telemetry typically used during drilling operations, such as mud-pulse telemetry. Limitations, such as uplink and downlink telemetry data rates for most logging while drilling or measurement while drilling tools, result in slow exchanges of information between the downhole tool and the surface. For example, a simple process of sending a pretest pressure trace to the surface, followed by an engineer sending a command downhole to retract the probe based on the data transmitted may result in substantial delays which tend to adversely impact drilling operations.
Delays also increase the possibility of tools becoming stuck in the wellbore. To reduce the possibility of sticking, drilling operation specifications based on prevailing formation and drilling conditions are often established to dictate how long a drill string may be immobilized in a given borehole. Under these specifications, the drill string may only be allowed to be immobile for a limited period of time to deploy a probe and perform a pressure measurement. Due to the limitations of the current real-time communications link between some tools and the surface, it may be desirable that the tool be able to perform almost all operations in an automatic mode.
Therefore, a method is desired that enables a formation tester to be used to perform formation test measurements downhole within a specified time period and that may be easily implemented using wireline or drilling tools resulting in minimal intervention from the surface system.
One aspect of the invention relates to a method for determining formation parameters using a downhole tool positioned in a wellbore adjacent a subterranean formation, comprising the steps of establishing fluid communication with the formation; performing a first pretest to determine an initial estimate of the formation parameters; designing pretest criteria for performing a second pretest based on the initial estimate of the formation parameters; and performing a second pretest according to the designed criteria whereby a refined estimate of the formation parameters are determined.
One aspect of the invention relates to methods for determining formation properties using a formation tester. A method for determining at least one formation fluid property using a formation tester in a formation penetrated by a borehole includes collecting a first set of data points representing pressures in a pretest chamber of the formation tester as a function of time during a first pretest; determining an estimated formation pressure and an estimated formation fluid mobility from the first set of data points; determining a set of parameters for a second pretest, the set of parameters being determined based on the estimated formation pressure, the estimated formation fluid mobility, and a time remaining for performing the second pretest; performing the second pretest using the set of parameters; collecting a second set of data points representing pressures in the pretest chamber as a function of time during the second pretest; and determining the at least one formation fluid property from the second set of data points.
Another aspect of the invention relates to methods for determining a condition for terminating a drawdown operation during a pretest. A method for determining a termination condition for a drawdown operation using a formation tester in a formation penetrated by a borehole includes setting a probe of the formation tester against a wall of the borehole so that a pretest chamber is in fluid communication with the formation, a drilling fluid in the pretest chamber having a higher pressure than the formation pressure; decompressing the drilling fluid in the pretest chamber by withdrawing a pretest piston at a constant drawdown rate; collecting data points representing fluid pressures in the pretest chamber as a function of time; identifying a range of consecutive data points that fit a line of pressure versus time with a fixed slope, the fixed slope being based on a compressibility of the drilling fluid, the constant drawdown rate, and a volume of the pretest chamber; and terminating the drawdown operation based on a termination criterion after the range of the consecutive data points is identified.
Another aspect of the invention relates to methods for determining formation fluid mobilities. A method for estimating a formation fluid mobility includes performing a pretest using a formation tester disposed in a formation penetrated by a borehole, the pretest comprising a drawdown phase and a buildup phase; collecting data points representing pressures in a pretest chamber of the formation tester as a function of time during the drawdown phase and the buildup phase; determining an estimated formation pressure from the data points; determining an area bounded by a line passing through the estimated formation pressure and curves interpolating the data points during the drawdown phase and the buildup phase; and estimating the formation fluid mobility from the area, a volume extracted from the formation during the pretest, a radius of the formation testing probe, and a shape factor that accounts for the effect of the borehole on a response of the formation testing probe.
Another aspect of the invention relates to methods for estimating formation pressures from drawdown operations during pretests. A method for determining an estimated formation pressure from a drawdown operation using a formation tester in a formation penetrated by a borehole includes setting the formation tester against a wall of the borehole so that a pretest chamber of the formation tester is in fluid communication with the formation, a drilling fluid in the pretest chamber having a higher pressure than the formation pressure; decompressing the drilling fluid in the pretest chamber by withdrawing a pretest piston in the formation tester at a constant drawdown rate; collecting data points representing fluid pressures in the pretest chamber as a function of time; identifying a range of consecutive data points that fit a line of pressure versus time with a fixed slope, the fixed slope being based on a compressibility of the drilling fluid, the constant drawdown rate, and a volume of the pretest chamber; and determining the estimated formation pressure from a first data point after the range of the consecutive data points.
Other aspects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description and the appended claims.